Amid commitment and dedication to good governance and accountability, ten presidential aspirants of the All Progressive Congress have been disqualified by the presidential screening committee.
Chairman of the committee John Oyegun’ while reeling out the criteria for their disqualification on Friday 3rd June 2022 at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja said that ten out of the 23 aspirants vying for the flag were carefully examined to ensure credibility in the process.
He noted that the disqualification doesn’t apply to their inability to govern the country hence all aspirants are of high caliber and are bent on meeting the needs and aspirations of the citizens.
“Our report is basically simple. there were two aspects to it; The basic constitutional qualifications for you to aspire to be a president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which was simple and straightforward.
And on that basis every single member or Aspirant that presented himself qualified because it was basis and simple. But we are on the governing party and we are keen on continuing the process of replacing at the proper time our president with another member of the party and so the ability to lead. Your background, your experience your understanding of the Nigerian situation, your ideas as to how issues, difficulties, and the rest can be addressed, and how the country can move forward to begin a critical consideration. It is on that basis we made our final shortlist who brought the number severely down to 13.”
Also speaking, the chairman of the screening committee, therefore, urged the party to address the issues of national discourse and ensure adequate representation of each of the geopolitical zones in order to move the party forward.
“We only drew a word of caution, a national discussion between the North and the south and the Presidency. And we just want to advise strongly that the party should please think of it in making these decisions and address it and make it influence their thoughts because it has its own implications.
We were surprised at the active participation of the youthful members of the party.
Their understanding of the situation of the country and how they want to have the privilege of governing this country. So, what was important was that they so believed in the country and the party that they were able to pay the sums.”
Responding to the committee, the national chairman of the party Abdullahi Adamu Commended the committee for the elaborate report, adding that it will be looked into and addressed appropriately before the convention.
“One thing I found worthy is the fact that the Nigerian youth have responded, they have among them people who reap the spirit of competition and offered themselves to be considered the important office in the land. They have done this thinking of the spirit of one of the acts we passed sometimes during the 8th national assembly; the act of not too young to run. So I feel encouraged, we feel encouraged as a party that young people and the young women have offered themselves to contest for this office. We received the report now on each of them, we will consider on the very highest level of the party and see how we would approach it before the forthcoming convention which has ultimate authority over the choice of who takes the flag of our party. The flag does not belong to me, it doesn’t belong to any one of us it is the flag of the party and corporate body called the APC.
The Chairman in his presentation spoke about the issue of the South and North divided. It was our hope that due consideration will be given on the basis of the fact available to those who will be opportune behind the decision.”
The committee advised that consensus shouldn’t be an option as there’s a need for the contest in the forthcoming APC national convention for the presidential primary.
